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Greetings to everyone,
As my situation is a little bit different than things you can read in guides that are posted here, here is my long short story:
At the beginning of August I had to meet somebody that was new to my town so we have met at Lidl's car park around 22 pm. I stayed next to my car talking to him until around 23-23:20. My brother, the registered keeper at that time, received a Parking Charge Notice from Athena ANPR and he replied to them saying he sold the vehicle to me and I was the driver at that time.
So I went on their website and followed their appeal process using a template from here. At the end of August I have received a letter in which they said they are rejecting my appeal (private land, the owner can set own rules,etc). And now the problem begins:
I had to leave UK in a short period and I got back 1 week ago and I cannot find their letter of rejection. What can I do now? I've only got the PCN reference number which I can use to login on their website to see details and pay. Can you please advise me what is the next step in this situation?
Thanks

Your brother hasn't done you any favours by naming you as the driver, but what's done is done.

You need to go back to the Lidl and check what the limits on parking there are. It looks as though you were there for less than 90 mins or so, so unless they only "allow" an hour's free parking (which doesn't seem likely as you'd easily burn an hour in a supermarket), then this should be easy to get binned.

Write to them again and ask them for a copy of the rejection letter. They'll probably ignore you.

Athena are IPC members, meaning that the 2nd stage appeal is through IPR - I'd guess that this isn't worth bothering with in your case unless the signage (which you should photograph) is very clear that there is only an hours parking for customers.

You also need to CLOSELY SCRUTINISE the charge notice from them and compare it to the requirements in Schedule 4 of POFA2012. There is every chance that the notice will not contain the mandatory information, and thus can be thrown out.

If you're beyond the Athena rejection stage then any other course of action (other than a Lidl cancellation - but given the time of night of the parking event it might not be easy) is unlikely to get this killed. Athena are now IPC members and you won't get any positive result from the next appeal stage at the IAS.

If you've been named as 'the driver', PoFA Keeper Liability offers you nothing.

I'm afraid it's ride it out for 6 years (ignoring debt collector letters, but not court papers) and hope that Athena don't turn litigious. They're not at the moment, but who knows what they will do between now and 2022.

We cannot provide you with a silver bullet to get you out of this. You have to be in for the long run, and need to involve yourself in research and work for you to get rid of this. It is not simple. We will help, but can't do it for you.

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Just ignore it like we all used to do before any appeal existed. No-one on this forum paid these private PCNs prior to 2012 when POPLA came in (not available in your case anyway), so no need to pay now.

The sky will not fall in, no CCJ, no-one can send the boys round. Relax and ignore - as Umkomaas says, come back if they change the habit of a lifetime and try a small claim (defendable). If it's local and not much trouble, get some photos of how unreadable the terms are in the dark at 10pm. Keep those in case.

Sorry for late reply but I have been abroad again and when I got back I have found this letter saying OVERDUE REMINDER:You did submit an appeal which was rejected and the reasons for this were explained in our last letter. We have not received any payment and consequently under Schedule 4 of the Protection of Freedom Act 2012 you are liable for the full parking charge. You have seven days to pay....bla bla...failure to pay may result in ATHENA ANPR transferring your case to debt collection company or to further legal proceedings where additional cost may occur.
And another one with basically same things but this time my seven days expired and it was a FINAL REMINDER.
Any advice would helpful. Thanks

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